As industrial technologies advance, various types of approachable tools available in the market are provided for general users or maintenance technicians to inspect conditions of environments or constructions conveniently. For example, the maintenance technicians generally inspect the internal condition of a pipeline such as a water pipe or a gas pipe buried inside a wall or under the ground of most residences by using a tool (such as a steel chisel, an electric hammer, and an electric drill) to dig through the wall or the ground, and extending a monitoring apparatus into the problemed pipeline to inspect the condition of the pipeline, once the pipeline is broken, damaged or clogged.
With reference to FIG. 1 for the structure of a conventional monitoring apparatus, the monitoring apparatus comprises a main body 10, a serpent tube 11, a camera module 12 and a display device 13, wherein an end of the serpent tube 11 is coupled to the main body 10, and the serpent tube 11 is flexible and deformable to meet user requirements or to fit the shape of a pipe to be repaired, and another end of the serpent tube 11 is coupled to the camera module 12. The main body 10 includes a first terminal socket 101, a first port 103, and a built-in power supply (not shown in the figure), and the first terminal socket 101 includes a plurality of first connecting terminals 1011 coupled to the first port 103 respectively through the serpent tube 11 and electrically coupled to the camera module 12 for receiving a video signal transmitted from the camera module 12 and supplying electric power to the camera module 12. In addition, the display device 13 includes a second terminal socket 131 and a second port 133, the second terminal socket 131 includes a plurality of second connecting terminals 1311, the second connecting terminals 1311 and second port 133 are electrically coupled to a control circuit board of the display device 13 respectively, and the display device 13 can be installed directly to the main body 10 and electrically coupled to the main body 10 through connecting the connecting terminals 1011, 1311 in the terminal sockets 101, 131, or through inserting plugs at both ends of a transmission line into the ports 103, 133 respectively.
In FIG. 1, if a user wants to maintain or repair a pipeline by using the monitoring apparatus, the user simply digs through the wall or the ground, and then drills an opening from the exposed pipe, and holds the main body 10 to extend the camera module 12 and the serpent tube 11 into the pipeline through the opening, such that the main body 10 can receive video data of images captured by the camera module 12 and transmit the video data to the display device 13 through the terminal sockets 101, 131 or the ports 103, 133, so as to allow users to view the video data of the images captured by the camera module 12 from the display device 13 and know about the conditions inside the pipeline to troubleshoot the cause of the pipeline failure. With the aforementioned monitoring apparatus, the users simply need to dig through the wall or ground once or twice to confirm the exact position of the failed pipeline for the repair, so as to avoid digging through the wall or ground for too many times and further reduce the time and material cost required for the repair work. In the meantime, a transmission line is applied, so that the monitoring apparatus 1 allows a user to hold the main body 10 to adjust the angle of bending the serpent tube 11 freely and allows another user to hold the display device 13 to view the condition inside the pipeline to make necessary records or analyses.
However, the design of the conventional monitoring apparatus still has drawbacks. In FIG. 1, when the main body 10 of the monitoring apparatus 1 is installed to the display device 13, the first connecting terminals 1011 are electrically coupled to the corresponding second connecting terminal 1311, such that a power supply of the main body 10 can supply a current to the second connecting terminals 1311 through the first connecting terminals 1011 in order to supply electric power for the operation of the display device 13. After a user turns on the display device 13, the control circuit board will transmit the received current to the corresponding first connecting terminals 1011 through the second connecting terminals 1311 to turn on the camera module 12. In other words, the camera module 12 starts its operation only if the display device 13 is powered on. When the main body 10 of the monitoring apparatus 1 is installed to the display device 13 through a connecting wire, and the power supply of the main body 10 supplies the current to the display device 13 through the transmission line, and the electric power is then supplied from the display device 13 to the camera module 12. In the meantime, since the power supply of the main body 10 is not coupled to the first connecting terminal 1011, and the control circuit board of the display device 13 is not coupled to the second connecting terminal 1311, therefore the connecting terminals 1011, 1311 still can transmit the current received from the power supply. If any foreign substance (such as metal debris) falls into the terminal sockets 101, 131 and across the adjacent first connecting terminal 1011 or second connecting terminal 1311, abnormal operations of monitoring apparatus 1 may occur due to short circuits of the adjacent connecting terminals 1011, 1311. Even worse, a fire may occur and jeopardize the safety of users due to sparks produced by the short circuits.
In view of the description above, the conventional monitoring apparatus does not come with any safety design for protecting a possible short circuit of the connecting terminal or avoiding the inconvenience and danger of using the conventional monitoring apparatus. Therefore, it is an important subject for the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional monitoring apparatus by improving the safety of the monitoring apparatus.